U.S. News & World Report said Friday it will not adopt the National Association for College Admissions Counseling recommendations to reconstruct the way U.S. News ranks schools when developing the Top 25 Universities list.
NACAC proposed three fundamental changes to the methodology U.S. News uses to rank top colleges and universities, including removing SAT and ACT score and class rank in the rankings, de-emphasizing the reputation of schools and allowing students to weigh the statistics individually through college counseling.
David Hawkins, director of publicity, policy and research at NACAC, attributed U.S. News' intransigence to the "brand" U.S. News has created for itself in its way of ranking. By changing the rubric, the consistency of the rankings and methodology would change drastically.
Hawkins said the report was a culmination of two years of research seeking a way to better the system that U.S. News employs to rank the top 25 colleges and universities. He believes the company should stop considering test scores.
"SAT and ACT scores are not measures of institutional quality but of student ability," he said.
U.S. News, which ranks the University as the 25th best school in the nation, also rejected NACAC's suggestion that it place less emphasis on the 'reputation' survey, which makes up about one quarter of the ranking.
The survey asks members of different universities and colleges for their opinions of other institutions. By ranking this way, he said, it creates a sort of "beauty pageant."
The third major recommendation, Hawkins said, was for U.S. News to allow students and families to weigh the importance of different issues independently based on the statistics that U.S. News provides. This would enable students to have their own personalized rankings.
University Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said the choice of a school should be a personal one.
"Choosing a school should be based on many factors," he said. "I don't think college rankings like U.S. News can tell a student what it's really like to be a student at any school."
Hawkins added that the changes would help prospective students gain a better understanding of different colleges and universities.
"[U.S. News] ranking creates a static picture of something that is absolutely in flux," Hawkins said.
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